Subject: Making a face morph for genesis

Here is how you can create a simple face morph for DAZ's Genesis figure using only blender, in 12 easy steps.

Install the import plugin

First you need to load the Genesis mesh into blender. You could use either wavefront obj files, or you could use the included plugin (see link). I describe the latter way, since it is easier. Download the plugin and rename it to import_dsf_geom.py.

Point the file browser to the downloaded plugin, and then click the "Install Add-On" button

However in the current version blender has problems with installing plugins from network drives (which is the case for me). In this case you can install the plugin manually by copying it into blender's addon folder. On my computer the addon folder is V:/blender/2.59/scripts/addons. Simply copy the import_dsf_geom.py into that folder.

I almost forgot, sorry: After the plugin is installed you need to enable it: In the user preference window, select the Import-Export plugins. The import plugin will appear in the list as "Import-Export: import dsf-geom". Enable the check-box for it. You can select "Save as Default" now, so blender will enable the plugin on the next restart.

After you select the import from the menu, you will be presented a file dialog in which you can choose the Genesis.dsf file. The Genesis.dsf file is located within your DAZ-Studio installation's data folder. On my system this is V:/dsdata4/data/DAZ 3D/Genesis/Base/Genesis.dsf. Note that there might be another Genesis.dsf within the People directory, this is not what you need.
The other options of the plugin (materials, groups, uv-map) are not effective, because this is a reduced version (i wanted everything one one not-too-big file).

After you have successfully loaded the Genesis loaded you can scale it down a bit, since it is very huge (around 100 blender units). Scale it down in object mode, not in edit mode, so the actual mesh will not be distorted. You can also rotate it in object mode if you want, because it is lying flat (DAZ-Studio uses Y-axis as up).
In the mesh tab create a new shape key for the Genesis mesh. Press the Plus-sign twice to create one base shape key and another shape key for the morph. The first shape key is the Base shape-key and not to be modified. The second one created is the one that holds the morph, which is currently empty.

In order to use the shape key later for creating a morph, assign a name to it right now. Currently it is named "Key 1", the default name given by blender.The shape key's name is later used by the exporter to assign a group and a name to the created morph. To tell the exporter the name and the group, assign a name to the shape key where the components are separated by slashes ('/') starting with a slash. I set the shape key's name to /Millighost/LongNose, so it will appear in DAZ-Studio in the modifiers list under "Millighost" and have a name "LongNose".

Make it the created shape key the active shape key (it must have a blue background) and enter edit mode. Here you can move vertices in whatever way you like for your morph. In the illustration i made the nose longer by selecting a view vertices at the tip of the nose, and drag them out with the proportional editing tool. Do not delete or add vertices in any way, or the morph will not work.

After you are done, go back to object mode. The newly created shape will disappear, you can check what it looks like by playing with the Value parameter of the shape key.

To write the created shape key as a morph, you need another plugin that writes the shape key as a dsf file. Download the attached file and rename it to export_dsf_morph.py. Install it into blenders plugins in the same way you did in step 1 for the import plugin.

Like the importer before, this exporter has to be activated, too. In the list of Add-Ons of the user preferences select the Import-Export section.The plugin is named 'Import-Export: export dsf-morph'. Enable the checkbox for it.

Now call the exporter by choosing it from blender's Export menu, where it is called "dsf-morph (.dsf)" (in the space menu, it is "export dsf-morph"). You get a file dialog where you can choose a file name under which to export the shape-key/morph (i use a name "longnose.dsf"). The file should end with ".dsf", otherwise the name is not particularly important.

If all worked so far, you can stop blender now. The exported file "longnose.dsf" needs to be copied to your DAZ-Studio contents directory. Usually the morphs are within the ".../data/DAZ 3D/Genesis/Base/Morphs" directory within DAZ-Studio's installation data directory. DAZ-Studio seems to look in there for files by default. You can create a subdirectory within the Morphs directory for your own morphs. I copied it to V:/dsdata4/data/DAZ 3D/Genesis/Base/Morphs/Millighost/longnose.dsf. After that you can start DAZ-Studio. With Genesis loaded, in the parameters tab, select the Actor group. Based on the name you have given the shape key, the morph should be listed in there. Dialing the slider should dial in the morph/shape-key.

That was it. Hope this works, i only tested this once with windows, since i use linux most of the time, so let me know if there is something not working :-)

Neat script. DS4 can save as a variety of different kinds of DSF files, and so I was wondering if your script could handle a user created Character or Figure DSF? Or is the Genesis.DSF you use in your tutorial the only one it can handle?

What I would like to do is dial up an approximation of a Genesis character in Daz Studio, save it as a Character or Figure DSF, and then bring it over to Blender via your script for scupting, etc.

Quote - Neat script. DS4 can save as a variety of different kinds of DSF files, and so I was wondering if your script could handle a user created Character or Figure DSF? Or is the Genesis.DSF you use in your tutorial the only one it can handle?

The import script given above handles all dsf files that contain figures, or so it should at least. However at the time i wrote it, there were no other figure files than genesis available, so i only tested it with the genesis.dsf, so i am not really sure if it would really work with different figures. Probably your best bet is to just try it out on a different figure. If it does not work, and the project is not top secret you could send the file to me and i can try to guess what is going on...

Quote - What I would like to do is dial up an approximation of a Genesis character in Daz Studio, save it as a Character or Figure DSF, and then bring it over to Blender via your script for scupting, etc.

I am not exactly sure what you are doing in DS; can you describe it more detailed, like exactly which menu items you use to export the character dsf? (I am relatively new to DS, i still did not find out which buttons to press to export the dsf files that i want it to).

However the script above does not import morph files, if that is what you need. If you do - i guess i can post one i have made (but still needs some smoothing).

No top secret project, I was thinking it might be nice to have something other than the default male shape when you bring Genesis into Blender, like the Basic Female shape. However, I've since realized that if I was going to redistribute my morphs later, this wouldn't work out unless I could zero out the influence of the non-default morphs I didn't make myself. Still, for going back and modifying one's own work, being able to import a morph file could be handy.

I use DS4 Standard (4.0.2.55), and I have options for saving Character File, Shaping File, and Pose File DSFs. Pro or the CCT has more options, like Figure File, and I'm going to guess that Figure File should have everything like the base Genesis DSF. I'm still new to DSFs, so I can't really say what the difference between some of these are.

Here is how to export your own DSF: Load Genesis and apply any morphs you would like. Then, with just Genesis selected, go to File>Save As> and you should then see some DSF options. Unfotunately, I don't think the 'Smart' Content tab can find these, or I haven't figured out where it puts them because they weren't in Unassigned last I checked, while a DSF pose I made was.

But, after tweaking my DS4 installation and upgrading to Advanced plus CCT now I have the problem to import dsf Files. Maybe it has to do something with absolute paths. I wonder how your importscript can find Genesis.dsf, since my dsf Files only seem to have relative paths, beginning with /data?

Is it posible to add multiple morphs in this maner? Would it be a matter of adding more shape keys? What I'd like to do is creat a morph to pull the nose out as you did and then use a second morph to widen the nose. If it's just a matter of creating another shape key, I could use a little help. I can create additional keys but when I go to eddit mode, the figure goes back to it's original state so the keys are not progressions of the previous key. Yep, a noob. Anyway, thanks

Hi SickleYield, Thanks for the response. I think I asked the question incorectly. I fallowed the directions above and all went well. My question is: how should I go about including another morph to furthe modify the first morph. When I create a third shape key, the figure in the third key starts out like the base figure (no modifications). I did try with the value set to 1 as well as 0 and made no differance. the figure would always revert back to base shape. With the value set to 1 on shape key 2 in object mode, I could see the changes made to the mesh. but as soon as I try to go to edit mode for shape key 3 the figure reverts back to its base shape.

Hi SickleYield, Thanks again. I would have got back to sooner but I had to do a little digging aroud to figure out what you were telling me here.

So, If I understand correctly, I will create bsasis and 2nd key, modify 2nd key, press shift + d to copy it, select the copy i just made and push the m key , move copy of 2nd key to a new layer, modify it further, create 3rd shape key and move the modified copy back to original layer and export.

Didn't work:( can't get to edit mode on new layer, m key doesn't seem to do anything in edit mode. I'm sure it's probably something simple I may be missing I hope. I've started playing around with this 3D about a couple months ago and is very cool stuf

Quote - ... I don't think you can create a shape key additive to another one (that is, with a previous one applied and visible in edit mode), but I'm willing to be corrected on that point.

You can enable shapekeys in edit mode by clicking on the small cube-lookalike button (see illustration). That enables the shapekeys in edit mode according to their current value. That includes the shapekey you are currently modifying, though. So to use it, you have to dial the shapekey to 1 before going into edit mode, otherwise you will not see what you are doing.